Don’t Make us Register to Read

I think there’s a balance here – and it depends on the nature of the content and whether it forms part of a high value sales process. If you have a business model where volume is everything, and you simply want to get the message out to as many people as possible, then I would not have locked content. If, however, you’re selling something pretty complicated, highly targeted, like professional corporate buyers for example, then a data capture form can be a useful way of reducing quantity and tyre kickers (students, competitors, etc) and only actually giving your content to interested parties. The point is to make the content compelling enough to make the people you actually want to care enough, care enough to jump the extra hurdle. If they’ve done so, they self-qualified as actively interested, rather than just mildly curious.

Hi Bryony,

I agree completely, but both sites fall in to the earlier category. They need volume of visitors as they charge per impression (AFAIK) to advertisers – so it should be a case of the more the merrier. Unless I’m missing something.

I’ll check out those sites in particular – I was commenting on the principle. Sometimes these sites do this when they are running a campaign with a particular vendor, whereby it then sits in the latter category… but if it’s just news and views then it should definitely be open access – thus drawing you further into engagement with that company so you are more likely to do the latter at a later stage.

There is definitely a bit of a balancing act here – and as a content publisher, a strong argument that some “benefit” should be derived from publishing the content.

However, I don’t believe that requiring registration (e.g. list building as a benefit) is a good way to do so.

Why? Because it alienates people. I don’t know about you, but I have twelve million accounts already. I don’t want another one. Especially not to read a blog – which probably isn’t going to be that fantastic anyway.

I’ll go and read another blog, somewhere else!

People are far more fickle these days (and far more reluctant to invest their time into using your website) – anything along these lines is a big turnoff.

That said, it’d be really interesting to see some statistics on this, e.g. how many people bounce when they hit the register/login page, versus how many log in and how many register.

Totally agree with Matt Chatterley – my thoughts exactly.

I can understand Sift wanting to get something in return for the time, effort and professionalism they attach to their articles. The rub is, as you point out, that people see having to register as a barrier. To be honest, ANY content or application protected by passwords suffers this.

The way forward is to support registrations they’ve previously completed. We added support for Facebook, Twitter and OpenID sign ins to our site two months ago and registrations have more than doubled. All because so one can sign in using an existing identity to get immediate access to the stuff they want WITHOUT having to register a new identity.

The more sites support this then the easier it will be for everyone.

You can see what I am talking about at http://www.wecando.biz/access.php – just sign straight in with an existing ID you have; even if you haven’t been to our site before it will work.

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

I agree with the author. As someone fairly new to blogging and website creation I find there is too much other material out there to warrant me registering on a site to read a blog. Unless you can convince me of a compelling reason to do so I will just go elsewhere.

I don’t see any benefit to them doing this. If i want to read an article then i click on a link and i read. If i can’t read it cause I have to register then i won’t bother.

Duane

Thanks for the comments re the redesign. The move to put content behind a registration is not a break with tradition but a return to a previous situation. AccountingWEB has been running for 11 years, for nine of which it was locked down.

It is a balancing act. Removing the registration does open the site to more casual traffic, but, without time consuming and expense list maintenance, registration details will gradually degrade and the ability to target sections of your audience is reduced. There are also considerable advantages to the portfolio in restricting the view that we present to Google.

Second, volume is not the be all and end all. Most search traffic, which tends to be the type most put off by registration, is transitory. As advertisers become increasingly sophisticated, they are more and more looking for targeted campaigns.

Since the sites have been locked down registrations have soared. Ultimately, it is all in the content. AccountingWEB and BusinessZone are more than just blogs. We believe that if the content is sufficiently compelling registration (which only has to be completed once) does not present an insurmountable barrier to entry.

The debate about openID registration is interesting though.

Steve Roth
Managing Editor, Sift Media

Hi Steve,

Thanks for taking the time to respond, much appreciated.

You guys obvioulsy know what your’e doing when it comes to building community websites and selling advertising – but from a users perspective, it’s a real pain in the rear.

I’m registered on both sites but if I visit from another computer I need to log in again (if I can remember my credentials). And it seems the sites don’t always remeber my details for me so I need to regulalry re-login.

Completely agree with the author..

If I have to register just to read, forget it, and since that change I moved on elsewhere.. I was registered before, because I actually wanted to post there – as a result of having got used to reading there!!..

Steve, your increase in registrations might have something to do with everyone having to register again (is this classic Nu Lab spin!)..!! At least in my case, I couldn’t get back on with the old login.. This is also why I can’t now be bothered to go back there (apart from the frustration), I am not going through all that reg’n nonsense again, business name, address, phone numbers, the lot..

Someone above mentioned content – don’t forget that it is your readers who are the main contributors of that content – it is a symbiotic relationship, and one party to that relationship in my view has screwed up.

The fear is that as more sites have common logins (OpenID style) a breach in one will affect all. It will also encourage more “login to see” sites.

As I am typing this on a flaky mainline train link, this last point seems pretty pertinent.

I can only speak from my own experience, so that’s what I’ll do:

For me the internet is high speed information exchange, receiving & sending. If I come across a webpage/blog that I HAVE to sign in to use, 9 times out of 10 I won’t, and I certainly would not share that site with others. I won’t tweet it, nor share links on facebook, LinkedIn nor email.

It feels spammy, it feels like I have to ask permission before I can read it. It feels like an added obstacle I have to jump over/go through before reading.

Sorry I don’t like jumping through hoops for anyone.
Free reports that ask for my email address, fair enough- they’re offering good value & I always have the option of unsubscribing.

Having to create ANOTHER internet account before I can read an article, NO THANKS!

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I’ve just fallen foul of BusinessZone’s registration marathon. I have no problem with registering per se, but being asked for company turnover seems a bit OTT when all I want is to read a flipping article. To BusinessZone’s credit they replied to my tweet on the matter and guided me to this thread. I understand why registration is sensible, but could it not be a brief form? I gave up, couldn’t be bothered, but that no doubt says more about me than BZ’s registration form.

I’ve been registered for years. This is not a new thing. Bloomin’ irritating but not as bad as Mondaq.